Sock factory

Our socks, made for us by Bresciani in the heart of Lombardy, one of the twenty administrative regions of Italy and located in the northwest, are knit from the finest yarn, on tubular knitting machines counting up to 260 needles, and finished by hand-linking the toes. From start to finish, your socks pass through 13 pair of hands, ensuring the highest quality available today.

Everything starts with the thread, explains Max Bresciani, son of Mario Bresciani, who founded the company in 1970. Best known for their all natural knee high socks, Bresciani sources the raw fibers from Egypt (cotton), Australia (wool), the Himalayas (cashmere) and China (silk). These fibers are combed and spun in Italy into a thin knitting yarn, which then goes through a series of steps to strengthen the fiber, and give it its sheen, elasticity and softness. The yarn is then stored until it reaches the right humidity to enable to best knitting performance.

A spool of 90/2 kniting yarn.

For each yarn, and each type of sock, a different wheight of yarn, and a different number of needles are used. The more needles, the finer is the knitting, and the smoother the sock. At Bresciani, no machine is standard, rather, each machine is customized to gaurantee the best knitting quality.

When the knitting is done, the sock comes out in a tubular shape, and it is then time to finish the toe area. This is where years of experience comes in.

Only four workers in the entire company are allowed to do this work, on a total workforce of about 30 people. Hand linking the toes consists of a process where each point on either end of the sock is matched by hand on a linking machine, that then pulls a single thread through the loops. This is done for the entire width of the toe area, resulting in an almost invisible seam, so flat that you can barely feel it when you walk.

The socks then move on to the finishing stages, after going through one out of 13 quality control stages. The socks are pulled over a tube, and every stich, seam and square inch of fabric are inspected by hand for any flaws.

Finally, the knee high socks are steamed, pressed, and sewn together. Tags are put on and the Jeeves logo is printed.